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Updated: 8/30/05
Images of the Alchemical Art
9:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Monday
Albert "Ted" Hand
An exploration of "turning lead into gold" as a metaphor
for spiritual transformation in alchemical visual art,
allegory and symbolism. The tradition of alchemy has
roots in antiquity and was developed by Christian, Jewish
and Islamic thinkers. We'll focus on visual art, in
particular the "Atalanta Fugiens" of Michael Maier,
also looking at the use of alchemical imagery and symbolism
in literature and psychology, such as Shakespeare's
Sonnets and the work of Carl Jung. Discussion of the
history of innovations, cross-cultural influences and
re-interpretations of alchemy from ancient to modern
times.
RA 4297
3 units
Limit: 15
Reading Room
Theological Resources for Preaching and Worship:
Twentieth Century Liberalism
7:10-9:40 p.m., Monday
Alma Faith Crawford
This advanced course provides students with a grounded
familiarity with the theological assumptions, concepts,
symbols and vocabularies -- especially humanism, religious
naturalism, and feminism -- that continue to shape liberal
religious institutions, although sometimes in tacit
ways. Through group readings of conceptual texts and
collective development of sermon outlines, liturgical
calendars and in-class liturgies, we will experientially
prepare for ministries that re-connect liberal congregations
with their living heritages, while critically disentangling
those elements deemed anachronistic, unhelpful or oppressive.
STHM 4117
3 units
Limit: 12
Fireside Room
Poetry, Illness and Pastoral Care
2:10 - 5 p.m., Tuesday
Christine Fry
Inside every patient there is a poet trying to get
out. -- Anatole Broyard
This course is for those who wish to be a source of
comfort and compassion in the face of others' suffering
and for those who fear they cannot be. Through the reading
of memoirs, poems and related writings, we'll listen
to the voices of those who are ill and those who care
for them. Through writing, sharing and structured exercises
we'll let our bodies -- individually and collectively
-- speak and guide us to a deeper understanding of illness,
healing and health in these times. Through encounters
with those who are ill and those who stand with them,
we'll develop and strengthen our pastoral skills as
healers and religious leaders.
RAPS 4740
3 units
Limit: 12
Reading Room
Unitarian Universalist Polity and Heritage
2:10 - 5 p.m., Tuesday
David Sammons
In this foundational course,
the Rev. David Sammons, a long-time Unitarian Universalist
minister, will help students look at how and why Unitarian
Universalist polity has evolved the way it has and how
both parish and community ministers fit into it. Included
will be a discussion of the history and structure of
how various other church polities came into being and
why they are so different from each other. This class
will also explore the various institutions in the Unitarian
Universalist world, the Unitarian Universalist credentialing
and settlement processes, professional responsibilities,
the ministry in the context of congregational life,
and how Unitarian Universalist ministers fit into the
larger religious world. A special handbook of background
information will be provided and students will be asked
to form teams to research a project for a class presentation.
HSFT 4004
3 units
Fireside Room
Prison Pen Pal
5:15 - 6:45 p.m., second and fourth Tuesday of the month
Patti Lawrence
The Unitarian Universalist Church of the Larger
Fellowship (CLF) offers a pen pal program for CLF members
incarcerated in the US prison system and other "free
world" CLF members. SKSM students who would like to
learn about this prison ministry and practice skills
that might serve them in pastoral counseling situations
in future ministries can do so by becoming penpals and
meeting together in a praxis group. This group will
be held twice a month.
PSRS 4005
1 unit
Reading Room
Introduction to Preaching
7:10-9:40 p.m., Tuesday
Alma Faith Crawford
This foundational course welcomes students into
the fellowship of preachers. Together we will read books
addressing important aspects of sermon preparation,
living as preachers and the ontological transformations
that preaching can effect in the lives of individuals
and congregations. Students will identify their inner
and outer sources of the passion, compassion and loving
challenge from which their preaching energy comes. Depending
upon class size, students will preach three times. Students
preach to their peers whom they will provide with worship
bulletins describing the hypothetical worship service
or context for which the sermon was prepared. Students
receive the sermons of their peers with critical affirmation
and encouragement. In so doing, all will refine their
abilities to structure and deliver sermons, communicating
effectively in a worship setting. Students will rewrite
and hand in to the instructor a revision of a sermon
that they delivered in class, along with an explanation
of the suggestions that have been incorporated and those
that have been rejected.
HM 4002
3 units
Fireside Room
Chapel Practicum - Fall
8:45 - 9:30 a.m., Wednesday
TBA
This practicum is for those who wish to approach Starr
King chapels as a context for learning. Participants
in the chapel practicum make a commitment to plan and
lead a chapel service, attend each Tuesday chapel service
from 1 - 2 p.m., and attend worship reflection every
Wednesday morning from 8:45 - 9:30 a.m.
LS 4100
1.0 unit
Round Chapel
Threshold Seminar
9:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Wednesday
Rebecca Ann Parker and Core Faculty
This seminar, required of all Fall 2005 entering
Starr King M.Div. and MASC students, will introduce
the eight threshold areas in which Starr King students
must achieve competency before graduation, as well as
Starr King School's educational practice of Educating
to Counter Oppressions and Create Just and Sustainable
Communities (ECO). Participants will learn and practice
using tools of social and cultural analysis, self-critical
analysis, and leadership in their personal spheres of
influence. They will experience an approach to ECO work
which emphasizes creating and constructing structures
of justice, in addition to countering or being "anti"-oppressions.
The course will orient students to the school's educational
values and the task of integrating the arts of ministry,
the academic disciplines of theological and religious
studies, and the professional and personal qualities
needed in ministry.
STFT 4018
3 units
Limit: 30
Fireside Room
Global Religious Traditions
2:10 - 5 p.m., Wednesday
Lee Gilmore
This course will introduce students to the fundamental
elements of diverse global traditions of belief and
practice, as they are embedded within particular cultural
and historical contexts. Some regions and perspectives
we'll explore are indigenous, South and East Asian,
African and African Diasporic, North African and Middle
Eastern, and New Religious Movements. We'll ground our
survey in the religious pluralism of the United States,
and particularly the diversity of the San Francisco
Bay Area. Students will be expected to conduct site
visits as part of a final research project. Some questions
we'll consider together are: What are some of the differences
within religious traditions, and how do traditions change
over time? What are the roles of religions within diverse
cultures and especially in the U.S. experience? What
is the relevance of religious pluralism for our own
lives?
HR 4257
3 units
Fireside Room
The "Allergy to the Other"
9:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Thursday
Gabriella Lettini
This course will explore the claim that Western culture
is characterized by an inability to think of the other
as other, a tendency to erase otherness either by assimilation
or by annihilation, which Jewish philosopher Emmanuel
Levinas -- referring to the Western philosophical tradition
-- aptly defined as "allergy to the other."
Using Levinas' critique of the totalitarian aspects
of Western thought as a starting point, this course
will analyze how Western modern theo/alogies have reinforced
or challenged the "allergy to the other."
The authors analyzed are chosen for the prominence that
issues surrounding otherness have in their work and
represent a variety of perspectives, addressing issues
such as race, class, gender, sexuality, and religious,
cultural and ethnic diversity. Selected philosophical
writings will also be engaged, as patterns of identity
construction and paradigms for non-hegemonic attitudes
to otherness will be discussed. Cinematic representations
of the "other" will also be discussed.
CEST 4138
3 units
Limit: 15
Fireside Room
Congregational Dynamics
2:10 - 5 p.m., Thursday
Patti Lawrence
This foundational course focuses on the many
faces of Unitarian Universalist congregational life.
Identity, context, leadership, stewardship, membership,
outreach and governance are a few of the areas that
will be addressed. What is the role of the professional
minister and how can ministry be shared? This course
will give students an overall view of the congregations,
using a systems approach as a basis of knowledge for
field education in congregations, including internship.
FT 4184
3 units
Fireside Room
Rumi and the Mystical Path of Sufism
7:10 - 9:40 p.m., Thursday
Yassir Chadly
Within the current cultural scene in the United States
and elsewhere, there is a great deal of interest in
the life, teaching and poetry of Mevlana Jelalludin
Rumi. Most people don't realize that Rumi was an extremely
devout Muslim scholar who rose in the middle of the
night to make thousands of prostrations in deep meditation.
In fact, Islamic teachings and practice would appear
to be the exact opposite of what Rumi was about. This
course will look at Rumi in the context of Islamic spirituality,
mysticism and practice, leading us into the true heart
of Islam. Our primary text will be the book, "Rumi
and Islam" (translated and annotated by Ibrahim
Gamard). Students will be invited to journal throughout
the semester. An integral part of the class will be
initiation of Sufi techniques for breathing, meditation
and movement.
HR 4826
3 units
Fireside Room
Growth and Learning in Faith
9:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Fridays, Sept. 9 - Oct. 21,
2005
Michelle Favreault
There's a crisis in Unitarian Universalist religious
education. With enrollment numbers in decline, sporadic
attendance and a consumer-identified culture, is there
a way to reimagine programs for spiritual growth in
and beyond the congregation? How do adults find intellectual
stimulation, challenge and depth in religious community?
Is Sunday school the best ministerial model for children
and youth? We'll develop tools to consider the historical
and future role of learning for people of all ages and
stages of life.
ED 4048
1.5 units
Fireside Room
Text is Sacred: A Workshop
9:40 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Friday
Kelly Asprooth-Jackson
This course will focus on questioning and experimenting
with the following premise: "No thing created in part
or in full by human works may be entirely neutral on
the topics of human existence and human relationship
to Divinity." Coursework will focus on the application
of mentalities and methodologies often reserved for
the study of established scripture to a variety of texts,
in the broadest possible sense of that term. We'll begin
with a selection of novels by Kurt Vonnegut, Haruki
Murakami and Octavia Butler, but from there will expand
our fields of study into film, music, painting, architecture
and, hopefully, well beyond. Students will be expected
to bring their own artistic loves and talents to the
work of this class.
RABS 4205
3 units
Limit: 15 (by request)
Reading Room
Infield Assignment I: Congregational Fieldwork
TBA
Patti Lawrence
Fieldwork in Unitarian Universalist congregations includes
teaching a religious education class for children or
adults, working with a youth group, participating in
a stewardship campaign, full-time internship and more.
Please arrange with the professor.
FE 4000
1 to 10 units
Community Fieldwork
TBA
Gabriella Lettini
Community Fieldwork involves supervised placements
in a non-profit service agency, hospice work, literacy
counseling and more. Participation in theological reflection
groups is necessary. Arrangements should be made with
the professor.
FE 4310
1 to 10 units
Intern Reflection Group
TBA
Patti Lawrence
All Starr King students working in Unitarian Universalist
congregations are expected to participate in this time
of reflection on their ministerial work. Those involved
in internships away from the Bay Area will participate
in an e-mail reflection group. All participants will
be expected to attend the Starr King Intern Gathering
on Jan. 23-24, 2006.
FE 4025
2 units
Student Teacher Reflection Group
TBA
Patti Lawrence
This reflection group is intended for all SKSM student
teachers during the semester in which they teach. The
class will meet six times, beginning with an initial
meeting on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 2005.
ED 4055
TBA units
2005-2006
Intersession / Spring
/ Saturday
Intensives / Online
2006-2007
Fall / Intersession / Spring / Summer / Saturday Intensives / Online |
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